


The Threefold Deaths

by nighting_gale17



Category: Criminal Minds, Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: BAMF Derek, BAMF Spencer Reid, BAMF Stiles, Crossover, Emissary Stiles Stilinski, F/M, FBI Agent Stiles Stilinski, Hurt Stiles, Kidnapped Jennifer "JJ" Jareau, Kidnapped Stiles, M/M, Magical Stiles Stilinski, Pack Dynamics, Pack Family, Pack Feels, Pack Mother Stiles Stilinski, Pack Politics, Team as Family
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-04-17
Updated: 2018-10-17
Packaged: 2018-10-20 00:14:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 3
Words: 17,160
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10651029
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nighting_gale17/pseuds/nighting_gale17
Summary: Stiles Stilinski-Hale was finally having good things happened to him. He's happily married to Derek Stilinski-Hale, a well-respected emissary across the West Coast, and is starting his brand new job as a profiler for the FBI's Behavioral Analysis Unit. Now, he'll be facing the monsters of the human variety every week....Right?...When Stiles joins the BAU on a strange case of serial murders in Montana, he finds it eerily similar to something he has encountered in the past. Will he be able to help the team catch the killer without revealing the supernatural? Or will his suspicious activity start raising some questions and have people looking to closely into his past?





	1. The New Guy

**Author's Note:**

> This little plot bunny just wouldn't leave me alone, so here it is! I would love to hear any thoughts and feedback, criticism is always appreciated!
> 
> Next update will be on May 6th at 11:00 PM EST.

Elevators should have music, Stiles decided.  It was just way too awkward standing next to someone you don’t know without something to break the silence. Especially when that someone looked like a chocolate-flavored carbon copy of Derek Hale, with the eyebrows and everything. More than once Stiles caught the guy glancing over at him with curiosity in his eyes, but there was still a slight scowl on his face and damn, he felt sorry for whoever pissed in his Cheerios.

His fingers tapped incessantly against his thigh, more out of habit than anything else. Well, okay, it was also because he was nervous and needed something to do with his hands to keep his mouth shut.

Today was the first day at his new job and he was going to be the youngest person on the team. At 23, no pressure, right? Agent Hotchner, or Hotch, as he had been told to call him, told him he had nothing to worry about, but Stiles remained doubtful. He knew how close-knit the team was. He also knew they were still recovering from the death of one of their team members, Agent Emily Prentiss. He would probably be met with suspicion and it would take a while to gain their trust. Honestly, Stiles was expecting this. He would do the exact same thing if some random stranger suddenly joined his pack.

But Stiles was going to do his best to get them to trust him. He had been working towards this for the past couple years, and he’d be damned if he wasn’t going to keep fighting. He didn’t move halfway across the country away from his pack for nothing, after all.

The elevator dinged as they reached his floor and Stiles quickly stepped out and Chocolate Thunder, as Stiles had dubbed him in his mind, followed him. 

Unfortunately for Stiles, there were three different directions for him to go, and Hotch hadn’t exactly told him where his office was. Chocolate Thunder must have noticed his dilemma, because he spoke up and asked, “Do need directions to somewhere?”

Stiles glanced over at him and smiled sheepishly. “Yeah, I uh, I was told to go to Hotch’s office but I’m not quite sure where it is.”

“Hotch?” the agent furrowed his eyebrows slightly in confusion. “Yeah, his office is right through these doors, straight up the steps.”

“Thanks,” Stiles said gratefully. “I’m Agent Stiles Stilinski-Hale, by the way, I’m new.” He hiked up the duffle bag he was carrying on his shoulder and offered out his hand, which the agent took and shook firmly.

“Nice to meet you.” Chocolate Thunder gave him a big smile. “I’m SSA Derek Morgan. And don’t worry about Hotch,” he said, being such a gentleman and opening the door for Stiles. If Stiles wasn’t already mated to Derek he would swoon. He still might swoon. “he’s more bark than he is bite.”

Stiles smirked. “I know someone else who’s a lot like that.” 

He and Morgan parted ways in the bullpen as he made his way up the steps and knocked on Hotch’s office door. He could feel the eyes of multiple people on his back but he forced himself to ignore it as Hotch’s door and the man greeted him with a small smile, stepping out to join him on the catwalk. “Stilinski. Thanks for coming in. I know it’s earlier than what you’re scheduled, so I appreciate.”

Stiles grinned. “No problem, boss.” It wasn’t like he had anything to do anyway. He’d already made himself known to the Alpha of the region and he just had a couple of boxes left to unpack. “Brought my go-bag like you asked. The conference room is this way?” he asked, pointing to his right a couple doors down.

Hotch nodded in confirmation. “You’re right on time, the rest of the team should already be there.” Without another word he led the way towards the conference room, leaving Stiles with no other option than to follow him.

The minute he set foot into the conference room behind Hotch, all eyes turned on him. There were five people sitting around the circular table and Stiles immediately recognized Morgan which made him grin. Looks like he would be working with a Derek everywhere he went, now. Morgan looked surprised to see him, to the least, and he kept glancing between Hotch and Stiles in confusion. “Stilinski? Hotch, what’s he doing here?”

“Good, you already know each other. That makes this easier.” Hotch said, walking around to the front of the table. He gestured towards Stiles. “Everyone, this is our new agent, SSA Stilinski-Hale. Stilinski, these are Agents Morgan, Rossi, and Jareau, Dr. Reid, and our technical Analyst Penelope Garcia.” He pointed to each person in turn as he introduced them, and while Stiles paid attention, his focus immediately zeroed in on Dr. Reid. He looked exactly like he had on TV, with the same short, scraggly hair cut and professor-like clothes, complete with the vest and purple scarf.

“Oh my God. Lydia is going to be so jealous.” he breathed out in awe. He immediately stepped forward towards Reid and waved nervously, knowing from his research that Reid wasn’t fond on handshakes. “It is awesome to finally meet you. I’m a huge fan.”

“Of Reid?” Morgan burst, looking bewildered. 

Reid looked entirely flustered, but pleased at the same time. “It’s, uh, nice to meet you too?” he said, his greeting trailing off into a question, ignoring Morgan altogether.

“Oh man, this is great. I’ve got to get a picture with you later. Lydia will never believe me without solid proof. You realize your like, famous, right? I mean, you hold three PhD’s and two bachelors and you got into the FBI at the youngest age ever, which is totally amazing by the way,” Stiles rambled. “I mean, they tell stories about you in the academy to make us feel bad for not acting all of our test in an hour! Lydia just got her first PhD at Yale and all of her teachers talk about you, you’re famous over there! And anot-” he cut himself off, glancing around to see everyone staring at him in various degrees of wonder and disbelief. He grinned sheepishly and took a small step backwards, his hand going up to rub the back of his neck. “Eh… sorry about that. I tend to get carried away sometimes.”

“There’s two of them…” Morgan stage-whispered, his eyes wide in wonder.

Stiles glanced down at Reid. The doctor was staring at him with amusement in his eyes and he gave Stiles a shy smile. “People get like that when they first meet Rossi.”

“Hm? David Rossi?” Stiles glanced over the table where Rossi was sitting next to Morgan and Garcia. “I already met him, so the excitement has kind of already worn off.” he gave Rossi an apologetic smile. 

“We’ve met?” Rossi asked, suddenly looking more interest. His brows furrowed in thought and stiles could practically see the gears turning in his head. “Stilinski…” he mused. “Beacon Hills!” he snapped his fingers and grinned. “Thats right! We had a case there, a family burned to death in their house. I remember now.” he snorted and squinted his eyes at Stiles. “You were a little squirt back then, always running around that department and following us around like a lost puppy.”

Stiles snickered to himself at the analogy but nodded nonetheless. “Yup, that was me.”

Hotch cleared his throat, smirking slightly. “You two can finish catching up on the plane. We’ve got a case.”

Stiles took the empty seat next to Reid and tried to lower his freak out down a notch. It was just, God. He actually was on the team that The Dr. Spencer Reid was on. Lydia was going to be so jealous, he decided.

Garcia seemed to be a bright, sunny person judging from her clothes and how she carried herself even amidst the horror she was passing out to them in files. “Augusta, Montana.” she began, bringing up pictures of the victims. All were particularly gruesome deaths.

“They’ve had four murders there in the past month, all with the same MO. Blow to the head, sliced throat, and-“

“Strangulation by the garrote.” Stiles breathed, dread coiling up in his stomach. This was familiar. This was way too familiar.

Garcia nodded, not noticing his reaction as she continued. “Yes. The first victim, a Marsha Kale, 16, was the first found in a field right outside of the town, a month ago. The second victim, Daniel Hollow,18, was found two weeks ago in a wooded area behind the soccer field. The third victim, Haley Fisher, 14, was found last week in a local park, and Katherine Day, 25, was found today in the same park as well. The local LEOs have left Katherine’s body where they found it when they called you. They figured you would want to see it in person before they moved it.”

“Looks like the first three victims all went to school together,” Morgan commented. 

“And the latest one was a teacher that taught there,” Rossi added. “Could this be some kind of targeting at the school?”

“The Threefold Death.” Stiles frowned. “Ritualistic killings. The blow to the head, the cut throat, the strangulation.”

“I agree with Stilinski. The concepts of the Threefold Death is actually formed by a type of Irish Literature known as “Aided” or “Violent Death” tales. They all feature the deaths of kings or heroes that follow the same basic narrative: a crime was committed against a god, a prophecy is given telling the guilty party that they will die the threefold death, and then the guilty party dies in the deaths foretold.” Reid put in. “However, recently some scholars have been suggesting that in the threefold deaths, each killing blow represents a sacrifice to another god. 

“The bodies are face down, eyes closed. Signs of remorse from the unsub?” JJ suggested.

“The blood has been wiped clean from their bodies.” Morgan murmured. “ME report says it was probably something along the lines of baby wipes, but still. The act of cleaning the body shows remorse as well. Perhaps the unsub knew them? Or had some connection with them?”

“Well, Augusta looks like a small town. Only about one thousand people live there, so it is possible that the unsub is local.” Stiles suggested. “That could explain the remorse. He knew them, on some level at least.”

Stiles skimmed through the reports of the victims while he thought. It was possible there was a darach up there, sticking their nose into something they didn’t understand. Of course, he also hadn’t heard anything so far through the emissary vine, so it could just be some crazy person with some obsession with Irish lore.

Probably not.

He’d also need to call the emissary in that part of Montana before they landed so they didn’t think he was trespassing on their territory. 

“They’ve called us down there to investigate these bodies because they’ve never seen anything like this before. We don’t know what we’re dealing with here, so we need to get there as soon as we can. Alright?” Hotch swept his gaze around the team before nodding. “Good. Wheels up in ten.”

Reid turned towards him and looked as though he was going to say something, but whatever it was, Stiles never got to find out.

**_Who let the dogs out?!_ **

Stiles winced as the ringtone blasted through the conference room. He could have sworn he put it on vibrate before he left the apartment. “Sorry, I’m sorry. I need to get this.” He fumbled with it in his hands, apologizing to Reid as he stepped out of the conference room and into the hall. “Scott, I’m kind of in the middle of something. Is this important?” he hissed, sending an apologetic glance towards Hotch

“Stiles! Thank God. Make him stop!” Scott whined. There was a growl and then a clattering crash on the other end of the phone.

Stiles sighed. He knew this was going to happen, he just hadn’t expected it to be so soon. The full moon was tonight, but Stiles hadn’t been expecting this phone call until later tonight. “Put him on the phone, Scott.”

There was a moment of silence and a couple muffled curses (Stiles distinctly heard Erica’s voice) before, “I’m fine!” Issac snarled.

“Issac,” Stiles warned, trying to keep his voice quiet, momentarily forgetting about the possible Darach problem in Montana. “You need to calm down right now.”

Silence answered him on the other side of the phone, Issac’s harsh breathing the only thing letting him know he was still there.  “Listen to my heartbeat.” Stiles took a deep breath and focused on keeping his heartbeat steady. He pressed the phone against his chest, right against his heart. “Focus on that, Issac.” he murmured softly. “Take deep breaths until your heartbeat matches mine.”

Stiles let himself fall back into the familiar act of calming down Issac whenever he lost control during the full moon. Stiles was the only one who could touch him without getting maimed, so he would always hold the curly haired werewolf close to his chest so he could hear his heartbeat and calm down. The sound and touch of pack always calmed him down. 

After counting down from 100, Stiles lifted the phone back up to his ear and was relieved to hear that it was noticeably quieter. “Thanks, Stiles.” a familiar voice murmured quietly.

Stiles smiled fondly. “No problem, Sourwolf. Is he better now?” he asked, still a little worried. He wasn’t going to hang up unless he was absolutely sure his pup was better. 

“Yeah, he’s good now. We’re all here to keep him grounded. I think Erica is about to put in some kind of movie.” Derek ended the sentence as a question and Stiles heard Erica’s ‘hell yeah, Beauty and the Beast’ in the background. 

Stiles grinned and laughed. “Ha! Derek, your favorite movie!” He could perfectly see Derek’s face in his mind when he groaned in exasperation, a look full of annoyance and fondness. Beauty and the Beast was most definitely not one of Derek’s favorite movies. Which may partially Stiles fault cause he always teases Derek about being like the Beast. “Well, look, I gotta go, but I’ll call you guys later tonight, alright? We’re heading down to Montana for a case.” he frowned. “There’s something weird about it though.”

“Oh?” The noise in the background grew softer and Stiles figured Derek probably moved to another room where they could talk privately. “Weird how?”

“Darach weird.” Stiles clarified, leaning against the wall and playing with the wedding band hanging around his neck absently. “Four bodies. Threefold deaths. Three of them are high school students and one of them is a teacher. How much you want to bet that those kids are all virgins?” 

“Stiles… Do we need to come up there and handle this?” Derek asked, concerned. 

Sties shook his head. “No,” he answered when he remembered he was on the phone. “I’ll let you know if it gets out of hand, but I’m pretty sure we can handle this. Maybe if we’re lucky, it’ll just be a crazy person with an obsession of Irish lore.” he grinned.

“Stiles,” Derek sighed in exasperation, but Stiles could hear the fondness in his voice. “Since when have we ever been lucky?”

“Hmm…” Stiles thought contemplatively, an impish smirk forming on his face. “Well,” he began, lowering his voice. “there was that one night when we were in Greece…”

“Stiles!” Derek growled.

The young agent cackled with glee at the embarrassment and lust seeping through his husband’s voice. “You know you liked it.

“Whatever,” Derek grunted, but Stiles knew he was blushing under that fantastic scruff of his. “Your coworkers are whispering about you. Go back to work. And I mean it, Stiles, call us if you need any help up there.” 

“Yeah, yeah, I’ll call.” Stiles sighed dramatically, rolling his eyes. “Love ya Sourwolf.”

There was a mumbled ‘Love you too’ on the other end before Derek hung up and Stiles smiled softly to himself, his toes curling in a hazy pleasure that always came after they said the big ‘L’ word to each other. God, he loved that crazy wolf more than anything. Well, except maybe curly fries. Curly fries were so good…

Stiles fingered the wedding ring hanging by a simple silver chain around his neck almost absently. This was the first true test, he supposed. If he could actually do this. Profile. Of course, he had been doing it for years to monsters before he actually realized what it was and realized he could make a career out of it. 

Hopefully, this wasn’t a Darach and he was just leaping to conclusions.

He did however double check that his blade was packed away safely in his to go bag.

When the team finally made it onto the plane, there was a brief discussion about the profile of the killer, but without further investigation, they didn’t really have much to go on. There was no sign of struggle on any of the victims, and no sign of them being drugged, so they must have either trusted the unsub or knew them somehow. 

It was difficult finding the connection between all the victims too, even with Garcia’s help, because the town was so small. It seemed like the victims were all connected in the same way. They all went to the same school and went to the same church. Marsha and Haley were cousins and played on the school’s soccer team. Daniel was in the band along with Marsha. Katherine taught Chemistry and was the school’s Color Guard director.

“It looks like Marsha was on her way from soccer practice two weeks before she was found. She was supposed to visit a friends house but never showed.” Hotch said. “Daniel reportedly told his parents he was going to stay late at the school to practice his trumpet for a concert the band was going to have that Saturday and he never came home. This is the last footage we have of him, right outside the school in the parking lot.”

Hotch pressed the play button on the computer and the security cam footage began.

A young boy in jeans and a varsity jacket with the words “MARCHING BAND” emblazoned on the back of it was walking away from the camera in the parking lot. It was completely empty, except for one car which Stiles assumed was Daniel’s. 

Then suddenly Daniel stopped walking and turned towards the right like something caught his attention. Stiles wore he caught the brief show a smile, but it was hard to tell in the dark. The after a second, Daniel started walking to the right and walked right off the view of the camera.

“What is that it? That’s not much help. We don’t know what made him stop and leave his car.” Morgan asked. “Is there anymore footage?”

“Sorry, handsome. That’s the last video footage I have of Daniel leaving the school.” Garcia popped up on the screen with an apologetic look on her face.

“Sorry, Garcia? Was it?” Stiles asked. “Could you rewind that video and pause it when he turns?”

“Sure thing, sweet cheeks.” 

When the video as paused, Stiles leaned across the aisle and pointed at Daniel’s face. “Right there. Zoom in on his face.” With the video zoomed in, Stiles nodded to himself. “He’s smiling. Or. at least, he starts to smile. Whatever made him take a detour from his car, he obviously knew them.”

Rossi hummed in agreement. “So going off the assumption that it is the unsub offscreen, he must be a familiar face. A local, probably. He knew that Daniel was going to be there after school. 

“Alright.” Hotch nodded. “When we land, I want Stilinski and Morgan to check out the latest crime scene. Rossi and JJ, I want you two to go interview Daniel’s parents. See if they know who could have known Daniel was staying late at the school. Reid and I will set up at the station.”

Stiles nodded, indicating he heard but was distracted during most of the plane trip. The possibility of a Darach was still weighing heavily on his mind and he still needed to call the emissary of the territory before they landed.

Quietly, Stiles walked to the back of the plane near the coffee machine and dialed up the number for the emissary Derek had texted him earlier on his phone.

“This is Ryan Bloom, the emissary for the Adair Pack.” A bright tenor voice answered. 

“Hello, Ryan. I’m Stiles Stilinski-Hale, the emissary for the Hale Pack.” Stiles began. “I would like to request access to your territory.”

“On what grounds?” Ryan asked, the cheery voice becoming serious.

“I work for the FBI with the Behavioral Analysis Unit. My team was called out to assist in an ongoing investigation in your town. I would also like to request a meeting with you Alpha as soon as possible.” Stiles explained.

“Oh, you’re coming for those murders? Thank goodness.” Ryan sighed, the relief evident in his voice. “One of the victims, Haley, was part of our pack. We don’t have any idea who is behind these killings.”

“I’m so sorry to hear that.” Stiles consoled quietly. He knew the feeling of losing a pack member all too well. “We should be landing soon. I would appreciate it if you could fill me in on everything you guys tried when you looked for her, and the other victims.”

“Of course.” Ryan agreed readily. “We’ll be awaiting your arrival. My alpha is actually the sheriff in town, so you’ll be able to speak with him immediately. He’ll fill you in on everything. Is the rest of your team in the know?”

“No,” Stiles replied immediately, glancing up at the rest of the team on the plane. “No,” he repeated, “And I don’t want them to find out if I can help it. They don’t know me well yet, and I don’t know most of them. Best keep the Supernatural out of this one.”

“Of course,” Ryan said understandingly. “I’ll let my alpha know, then.” he sighed. “I hope you can find whoever is behind this and put a stop to it. Our cubs are starting to get scared of leaving the house now.”

“Don’t worry,” Stiles reassured him grimly. “We’ll find whoever is behind this.” Determination steeled his voice. “We will.” 

After saying their goodbyes, Stiles shoved his phone into his pocket and made his way back to his seat across from Rossi.

When he sat down, Rossi put the book he was reading aside and looked Stiles up and down, an unreadable expression on his face before he smirked. “You grew up good, kid. Nothing like the overactive kid always getting underfoot I knew.” 

Stiles laughed and was quick to reassure him. “Oh don’t worry. I’m still that same kid. I just know how to hide it better.” he grinned.

“So whatever did happen with that cold case?” Rossi asked curiously. 

“Well…” Stiles leaned back in his chair, trying to decide where to start. “We ended up catching the killer. It was a woman,” he added. “I know that didn’t fit your original profile.”

“No, it didn’t.” Rossi frowned. “We had profiled a Caucasian man in his mid-to-late twenties. Someone who had had previous altercations with the Hale family, Talia Hale in particular, due to her status as such an upstanding lawyer.”

Stiles nodded. “You were almost right. You profiled her brother, Chris Argent. Kate Argent was the killer.” he sighed. “She used one of the family members, Derek Hale, to learn about the family and infiltrate the house to trap them all inside when she set the house on fire.” he reached up to his wedding band and twisted it around absently.  “She was psychotic. She convinced him they were in love and made him tell her everything about his family. 

“When was she finally caught? You keep referring to her in past tense.”  Rossi asked.

Stiles snorted. “Not exactly caught. She’s dead. She came back into town a few years back and people started getting murdered again. We found her, and she refused to come quietly.”

“I see…” Rossi hummed. “Well, I’m glad that she was caught. A little disappointed our profile was so off.”

 _Well, that tends to happen when you don’t know the Argents are Hunters and the Hales are Werewolves_ , Stiles thought to himself. Aloud, he stated, “You guys still helped a lot. If it wasn’t for your profile pointing directly at her brother, we never would have realized it was Kate.” Which was a lie. But then he grinned. “Besides, watching you and Gideon and the rest of the team work was what got me interested in profiling. Not such a lost cause after all.”

“No,” Rossi chuckled. “No, I suppose not.”

xoxoxo

“You guys from the FBI?”

As Stiles and Morgan exited the black SUV when they arrived at the crime scene, an officer who looked to be in his late thirties walked up to meet them at the edge of the scene. He held up the tape for them to cross underneath as they flashed him their badges. “That’s right. SSA Agents Morgan and Stilinski.” Morgan greeted him.

“Well, I’m sure as hell glad you guys are here. It’s crazy what’s been going on.” The officer shook his head and sighed. “I’m Detective Lewis, I’m the one leading this case.”

Stiles left Morgan to talk to the detective and made his way towards the middle of the crime scene where the body was located. The smell was awful, Stiles could smell it even as they were approaching the crime scene back in the SUV.

Interestingly enough, the body of the teacher was laid face down. Her clothes were dirty and torn up, Stiles could see some bruises along her arms and legs as well, which was new. None of the other victims had defensive wounds, so she must have fought back for a reason the others hadn’t. As he bent down, Stiles snapped on a pair of gloves to investigate the head closer. Gently, he parted her dark, blood caked hair to get a better look at the blow to the back of her head.

“Can you tell what kind of weapon was used to make this?” Stiles asked, directing his question to the ME who was hovering over the body across from him.

The ME glanced up for a moment before returning his attention back to the bruises on the back of her arms. “Initial observation it looks blunt force trauma. If it is anything like the rest of the victims, it was probably-”

“-a baseball bat.” Stiles finished, muttering to himself. “Can we turn her over?”

“Yes.” The ME nodded. “We were waiting for you guys to get here before we did anything with her. Flip her towards me on three.” Both the ME and Stiles gently flipped the corpse onto its back after the count of three. Her eyes were closed, another sign of remorse, Stiles thought to himself. Why was this unsub feeling so guilty about these killings?

The cut on her throat was particularly gruesome. All of the blood had been wiped away, just like all of the other victims, and there were visible signs of strangulation on her throat. “A Threefold Death.” he murmured, the dread in his stomach growing with each passing second. Discreetly, he relaxed his hold on his magic and allowed it to wash over the body.

Immediately he regretted it because he felt like throwing up. There was dark, dark magic still lingering on the body, much like a bad smell lingers around. It was strange, yet terrifyingly familiar. This was definitely the work of a Darach.

He could almost see it, streaks of black magic spread along the entire body, but more focused around the wounds.  The wounds themselves seemed to be almost glowing with the dark magic and Stiles had to close his eyes and take a deep breath to calm himself. Freaking out over the Darach wasn’t going to help anyone. Sure, it had been a few years since he had last encountered one, not since Jennifer Blake, but he’s been taking out monsters for years. He could do this.

A hand landing on his shoulder made him jump, but he relaxed when he realized it was just Morgan. “Well, Stilinski? What do you think?”

“The unsub feels remorseful.” Stiles began, standing up next to Morgan and staring down at the body. “She was face down when they found her, eyes closed, just like the other victims. She was cleaned up too, of all the blood at least. This was just another dumping ground for him so he must be holding them somewhere else.”

Morgan nodded in agreement. “Yeah. Reid is getting started on the geographical profile down at the station. Same MO… I wonder what’s driving the unsub to make killings so ritualistic.”

Stiles stayed silent for the time being. He didn’t want to talk about his possible theory until he had a chance to talk to the Alpha. Besides, if this was a Darach, which he was pretty positive it was considering the dark magic, he didn’t want the team to get caught in the crossfire.

He left Morgan to himself and walked a few steps away from the body, turning so he could face the forest on the other side of the park. He breathed in deeply, closing his eyes to center himself and shake off the feeling of the residual dark magic left on the victim. It wasn’t strong, but Stiles knew that with each kill it would grow stronger until it completed the ritual.

Without opening his eyes, Stiles pulled his phone from his pocket and dialed Garcia’s number, which he already had preprogrammed onto his phone.

“He who Seeks the Queen of All Knowledge, speak and be recognized." 

“It is I, your majesty, the newest knight of your kingdom, Sir Stilinski,” Stiles answered seriously. 

“State your question, Sir Stilinski, and it shall be answered only if you answer a question in return,” Garcia demanded with a slight giggle in her voice.

“I need to know how far out the forest extends beyond this park where the third and fourth victims were found.”

“Hmm…” Garcia hummed. Stiles could hear the faint tapping of her fingers on a keyboard as she looked. “Looks like it extends about… 50 acres out.”

“Great, thanks, Garcia. Could you look into who owns all of that land?” he asked.

“Of course! Now, my turn.” There was a small pause before she asked, “Is your husband really that hot in real life? He can’t be that hot.”

Stiles grinned, already knowing what picture she was looking at. The one of him and Derek in Italy on the beach for their honeymoon. “Hotter. Way, way hotter. and his name is Derek.”

“What!” Garcia squealed. “Stilinski, you can’t-”

“Later, Garcia.” Stiles chuckled and hung up the call. He could already tell where that conversation was going, and as much as he would have liked to continue talking to Garcia about it, he needed to get down to the station. 

The young profiler opened his eyes and stared out into the forest. The unsub was a Darach. A Darach in search of immense power. Jennifer Blake wanted the power to defeat the Alpha Pack.

The question was: what did this Darach plan on doing with the power gained from the ritual?

Whatever it was, Stiles needed to figure out fast. The full moon was tonight. It wouldn’t surprise him if another victim was taken tonight. 

4 down, 11 to go.

Time was running out.


	2. The Hollows

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm back! I swear I started this chapter in May...
> 
> Sorry for such a long wait for this story, things have been hectic in life. Some good, some not good. I just finished my first semester of college, so that was exciting. But one of my best friends... well, she's going through some rough times, and I've been trying to help her the best I can. It's been hard.
> 
> But I've finally got the chapter I promised you! Can't make any promises on when the next update might be, but I'll do my best. The next chapter will have a lot more team interaction, and you'll get a little peak at some of the team's opinions on Stiles.
> 
> On another note, let me know if you have any advice on characterization! I feel like that's one thing I really want to try to improve on, but I always struggle with it a bit. Any constructive advice you guys could offer would be appreciated! <3

Stiles could feel the presence of the pack the minute he stepped into the police station. The familiar feeling of protection wards simmered over his skin the moment he crossed the threshold of the building, leaving him feeling slightly dizzy for a brief second, but it passed before Morgan took notice of it. Okay, so, that was definitely the work of an emissary, probably Ryan Bloom, if Stiles remembered his name correctly. The young agent was impressed by the complexity and power of the spell, and grateful, because that was one less thing he had to worry about. Ryan must have been in here early to manipulate the wards and allow him entrance, otherwise he was sure there was no way he could have easily gotten into the station.

Morgan walked by his side as they made their way into the station to meet up with the rest of the team, though Stiles was lost in his own head.

The unsub was a darach. There was absolutely no doubt about this in Stiles’ mind. So far, the unsub has killed three virgins and one philosopher. They had innocence from this, which would make it harder to find them, and were on verge of gaining the impressive amount of power that came from killing the philosophers. The unsub seemed to be followed the three-fold death ritual, and Stiles found himself inwardly cursing Jennifer Blake, still causing problems even after she’s been dead for years.

For some druids, they revered Jennifer Blake. She had managed to pull off one of the most difficult and dangerous rituals known to man, and would have succeed if Stiles and his Pack hadn’t managed to stop her in time. The ritual she used, her methods, all of it is common knowledge among emissaries and druids, so Stiles felt confident enough to say the unsub was more than likely doing the same thing she was. Which meat two more philosophers were going to be killed in the next couple of days, followed by three warriors, healers, and guardians. And the unsub didn’t seem to be as patient as Jennifer was. Time was not on their side this time.

The one big question that was bugging him though was why the unsub was doing this. Why was it going through all this trouble for this ritual? Stiles knew of multiple different rituals just off the top of his head that could bring power with minimal or almost no death. It was like they were trying to attract attention, which didn’t make any sense. Unless it was an unconscious cry for help? There was evidence of remorse when he disposed of the victims… so it wasn’t an impossible deduction.

And another thing, Stiles just thought of, this ritual was very dark, and very complicated magic. Only a very skilled druid or emissary could be capable of pulling this off. Why did the unsub want all this power? Stiles supposed it was possible it was gathering up power because it wanted to take out the local Pack, but something didn’t sit right with him. True, it had killed one of the pack members — which tore at Stiles heart just thinking about the pain they must all be in— but if the unsub was able to easily kill one of the wolves like that, leaving absolutely no trace of themselves, then the unsub would have no trouble taking out the pack on its. As much respect as Stiles had for the Adair Pack, they weren’t very big, or very strong, despite their emissaries impressive protective measures.

So why? What was the end goal here?

Stiles train of though was abruptly broken when someone grabbed his shoulder and jerked him a few steps to his right. Stumbling slightly as he regained his footing, Stiles realized he had just almost run into the wall and grinned over at his savior who was—Hotch. Huh. 

Stiles opened his mouth to thank him, but Hotch was already moving back to the whiteboard next to Reid, like saving people from running into walls while they were distracted was a normal occurrence. Which, yeah that was weird, but—

Ah. That’s why.

Reid’s hand slowly started grasping around in thin air near the bottom of the board, like he was trying to grab a marker but his attention was zeroed in and completely focused on what he was looking at and not quite putting in enough attention to find one of the markers. Hotch silently grabbed a marker from the stand and put it in Reid’s hand for him.

Reid hummed absently in thanks and started drawing on the board, glancing back and forth from different pictures of the crime scenes and various maps while he did so.

A warm feeling curled in the pit of his stomach and stiles couldn’t help but smile slightly at the sight. This team cared about each other, that much was obvious. It reminded him of Pack, and was a nice change from the terrible teams he had been transferred in and out of before he landed here. Shaking his head, Stiles sat down in one of the chairs surrounding the conference table and made a point to focus his attention on Morgan while he was talking to the rest of the team.

“This unsub definitely feels remorse for his victims. Despite the brutal, ritualistic method the unsub chose to kill them, it’s like the unsub feels they don’t have any other choice.” Morgan explained as he filled int he team on what they got from the crime scene.

“He.” Stiles spoke up after Morgan finished speaking. When he had everyone’s attention, he leaned back in his chair, idly ripping a pen between his fingers as he talked. “I’ve been doing some thinking since we saw that video of Daniel, and I believe the unsub if a male, caucasian, probably in his early twenties.” he spun around and pointed his pencil at the smiling picture of Daniel hanging on the white board. “Daniel is the only victim that we know wasn’t taken by force. He went into the unsub’s vehicle willingly, right, despite the late hour he was at the school/ Daniel’s a fairly attractive kid for his age, he’s 18, and he just announced on his Instagram that he’s out of the closet.” he said, waving his phone in the air in front of him.

“Small town like this, odds are there aren’t very many other gay kids his age.” JJ murmured thoughtfully.

“Exactly.” Stiles snapped his fingers at her, nodding. “So best bet is the unsub chatted him up somewhere— gay bar in another town, tinder, whatever— and that’s why Daniel went with him. This unsub isn’t just randomly picking his victims. He’s choosing them carefully. There’s a pattern here,” he insisted. “I’m sure of it.” the only problem was he couldn’t tell him team what the pattern was… He inwardly sighed. And here comes the problem with no solution that led him to get transferred from the last five teams he was in.

“Did you guys notice the hesitation marks on the first three victims?” Reid questioned, staring intently at the board with the pictures of the victims pinned on it. He traced his finger over Martha’s slashed throat thoughtfully before he turned his attention to the pictures of Katherine. “Then when he got to the fourth victim it’s a clean cut. No hesitation at all.”

The innocence. Stiles thought immediately. He’s convinced he’s doing the right thing now, for the right reasons, with no doubt in his own actions.

“Looks like the first two victims it took a couple blows to their head before they were knocked out.” Reid continued and Hotch moved to his side, a contemplative look on his face. “But with the last two victims the blow to the head is singular and perfect. They would’ve been out cold immediately.”

“He’s perfecting his craft.” Stiles murmured, taking a closer look at Haley’s autopsy file. It was what he expected. Blow to the head, signs of strangulation, cut throat, except— abruptly Stiles sat up straight ins chair as he continued reading the ME’s findings, a small pit of dread forming his stomach. Mountain ash. Mountain ash was found in her lungs, a very faint trace, but a trace nonetheless. There were also traces of wolfsbane found in the wound to her throat, which made sense, Stiles supposed. If he were going to kill a werewolf he would definitely need a knife coated in wolfsbane.

Wait.

Stiles reached across the table and grabbed another autopsy report—Daniel’s—and quickly flipped through it. No sigs of mountain ash or wolfsbane anywhere. He pushed the files aside and grabbed the other two, ignoring Rossi’s questioning look. After quickly glancing through them, he came to the same conclusion—no traces of mountain ash or wolfsbane in any of the other victims autopsies except for Haley’s.

So, the unsub knew Haley was a werewolf, and targeted her specifically. Stiles frowned contemplatively and got up out of his chair and started pacing across the room while he let his brain think, movement always helped him think faster.

The first two victims were not werewolves. Okay, humans, easy targets, that makes sense. Stiles reasoned. But then the unsub went after Haley, who is a werewolf. The traces of wolfsbane and mountain ash prove that the unsub knew she was a wolf, not human, but why kill Haley and then devolve and kill a human after killing Haley? Why not go after another wolf? There weren’t any defensive wounds on Haley, so it was safe to assume that the unsub was hurt.

That would require a lot of charism, not that Stiles thought about. Wolves could smell magic, and if Haley could smell the magic on the unsub, an unfamiliar druid trespassing on her territory, she surely would have immediately alerted someone or attacked. That was protocol. So why didn’t she? The only thing Stiles could think of was the unsub must have convinced her to come with him, like he had convinced Daniel to come with him, before he knocked her out with the mountain ash.

“Stilinski!” 

A sharp shout of his name snapped him out of his trance. Stiles jumped slightly and turned to face the rest of the team. Morgan was looking at him with faint amusement and curiosity. “You wanna tell the rest of us what’s going on in that brain of yours?”

Talk about treading fine line. Here once more was the problem without an obvious solution. How much could he tell the team that would help catch the unsub without telling them about the supernatural? He couldn’t tell them about the mountain ash, that would raise to many questions and if they haven't noticed it yet, or deemed it insignificant, he didn’t want to raise it to their attention. He supposed he could tell them about the ritual, at least. then they might be able to get an idea of who could be next and why he was doing this…

“Okay. Okay, okay, okay.” Stiles ran his hand through his hair in frustration, spinning around in a circle before sighing. “There’s something you guys should know about me.” he reluctantly pointed towards the board. “I’ve seen this before.” he admitted, glancing around at the others. “Up close and personal. That’s why I recognized the ritual so quickly.”

“What do you mean?” Hotch asked carefully. “Something this big, this many murders, the FBI would have heard about it.”

“We never called in the FBI to come help.” Stiles shrugged, answering carefully. “I was seventeen. At the time of the first couple murders, we didn't realize they were connected. Some of them we didn't even find their bodies right away, we just assumed they went missing. But by the time we started catching on to the fact that all of these missing people were murdered, and all the murders were made by one person, they just kept coming back to back to back, so fast we never got the chance to call in for help. Then my dad, or uh, the Sheriff, was kidnapped along with my step-mom and my sister-in-law’s father to be her next sacrifices. We ended up catching her before she got the chance to kill them thought.” At least, that was what the official story was. And he carefully didn't specify who ‘we’ was. “Anyway, what I’m trying to say is I think I knew what the unsub is going to do next.”

Walking over to the white board, Stiles picked up a marker and started writing. “This is a very specific ritual, and to those who believe int he power it brings, there is a very precise way to do it. According to my research, it calls for sacrifices of certain groups of people in threes. The unsub has already killed the virgins. He has also already started on the warriors, because Katherine, the teacher, was in the National Guard.” he explained, writing down the names of the first three victims under VIRGINS and Katherine’s name under WARRIORS. 

“He’s going to try and take out two more warriors next. Then he’ll move onto HEALERS, PHILOSOPHERS, and GUARDIANS.” Stiles spun around to face the the team. “now, according to the ritual he is following, the unsub is going to have to go after all the victims in this order. It’s why he started with the virgins. It will give him a sense of innocence. It won’t prevent us from catching him, but he believes the power he gains form killing the virgins will make us less likely to suspect him at first.” Stiles paused for a beat before he added, “Supposedly.”

“How are you so sure he’ll follow this order?” Morgan asked dubiously.

“Because this unsub’s actions are almost identical to what the unsub in my home town did when she followed this ritual.” Stiles shrugged. “I mean all you have to do is google it and you can find it.”

“Alright. Let’s say Stiles is right, and that he is following this ritual, which makes sense.” Rossi began, steeling his fingers across his chest and giving Stiles a curious look. “Why? What is he trying to gain from this?”

Stiles could only shrug at the question. “I have no idea. Other than the perceived power he thinks he could gain from this, I can’t think of any other reason.” he sighed and shook his head. “But something about that explanation doesn’t sit right with me. I don’t know why, but it doesn’t feel right.”

“So the unsub feels powerless,” Morgan hummed thoughtfully, “That’s why he’s doing this… ritual. He’s convinced himself that it will bring him power.”

“That makes sense.” JJ agreed. “Something traumatic could have happened to him that made him feel helpless, powerless,” she suggested. “And now he’s trying to compensate for it by getting power in any way he can.”

Stiles felt him coming before he heard the knock on the doorframe which was the only reason he didn’t jump out of his skin when he heard the loud BANG BANG on the door. Turning around, Stiles came face to face with the Alpha of the Adair Pack, Sheriff Adair, if the badge on his uniform was anything to go by.

“Which one of you is Agent Stilinski?”

There was a beat of silence before Stiles spoke up. “That would be me, Sheriff Adair.”

The Alpha was an older man, around the same age as his dad. he had pepper-gray hair and wrinkled laugh lines around his eyes. His face was hard, but his eyes were kind, bringing a sort of calm to Stiles jitteriness that had been present since he left for DC. He stared hard at Stiles for a moment before his brown eyes softened and he gave Stiles a large grin, reaching out and shaking his hand firmly. “It’s nice to finally meet you, Stilinski.”

Stiles chuckled, slightly surprised at how easy going the man seemed. He’d heard some tough words about the Adair Alpha from the emissary grapevine. “It’s nice to finally see you, as well.”

“So you two know each other?” Morgan spoke up, his voice curious.

Stiles and Alpha Adair shared a look before Adair spoke up, his voice smooth and light. “I know of Stilinski’s father. He’s a Sheriff as well, we’ve run into each other before at a couple of conferences. I’ve been looking forward to meeting his son.” His eyes darkened. “I can’t say I’m pleased with the circumstances we are meeting under, however. Thank you, all, for coming so quickly.” he said, addressing the rest of the team. “We need all the help we can get. If you need anything, anything at all, don't hesitate to ask.”

Hotch nodded. “Thank you. Hopefully we should have a profile for you soon.”

Adair nodded back and then jerked his head towards his office. “I would like to speak to Agent Stilinski for a moment. I won’t keep him long.”

Hotch frowned slightly, glancing over at Stiles for a brief moment before he nodded. “Not for too long. We’ll being going out soon to follow up with some of the families.”

Stiles gave a thumbs up in understanding and grinned at his boss before he turned and followed Adair back to his office. 

“Shut the door behind you, if you would, Agent Stilinski.” The Alpha walked around to the other side of the desk and sat down in his chair, letting out a long breath and staring at Stiles with a hard, unreadable expression. “I have to say, when my emissary called me to tell me you would be coming here, I was quite surprised. I was under the impression that the Emissary of the Hale Pack rarely left Beacon Hills?”

Stiles shrugged and casually stuffed his hands in his pockets as he walked towards the Alpha. “So they say. I first would like to offer my condolences for your loss on behalf of the Hale Pack,” he continued somberly. “We know all too well how the loss of a pack mate effects the pack, especially when it’s violent.”

The Alpha was silent for a moment before he nodded, and his entire demeanor seemed to relax slightly. “Thank you, Emissary Stilinski-Hale.” he murmured, sighing and running a hand over his face. His age seemed to become more prominent, despite the fact that he was a werewolf and they aged slower than humans. “I’m grateful that someone with knowledge of the Supernatural ended up on the team coming here to help. I was worried about how I was going to navigate this.”

Stiles nodded in understanding. “My team doesn’t know about the supernatural, so if we could keep it as quiet as possible, that would be ideal.” At the Alpha’s agreement, Stiles continued. “As for the unsub, we’ve got a couple leads that Hotch is going to send us out to follow up on, but I’ve got my own hunch I’d like to see if your emissary can follow up on. You see, whoever is doing these killings has knowledge of the supernatural, that’s obvious.” he paused, trying to decide how sensitive he should be when talking about Haley’s death.

“Whatever you’re thinking, Emissary, speak your mind.” the Alpha ordered firmly, eyes alight with fire. “She died under my watch, I need to know everything.”

The young emissary couldn’t help but be slightly impressed, and reminded of Derek, who would surely have said the exact same thing, though perhaps with less words and more glaring and growling. “Of course. There was wolfsbane found in her system, but not in the other victims. This makes it safe to assume the unsub knew he was dealing with a werewolf. This could mean a number of things— he knows how to spot them, or he knows the identity of all the werewolves in your pack.”

Alpha Adair’s eyes darkened at his last statement and he rose to his feet, eyes flashing a brilliant red. “Then my entire pack could be in danger!” he snarled.

“I don’t think so, not necessarily.” Stiles cautioned. “Do you remember the Darach that invaded Beacon Hills a few years ago?”

Alpha Adair frowned at the sudden topic change, but nodded none the less. “Of course I’ve heard of it, it was all over the grapevine. The disgraced druid and that cursed ritual was behind it, correct?”

“Correct,” Stiles acquiesced. “And I have reason to believe that the same thing might be happening here.” he allowed those words to sink in for a moment before he continued. “I went to the kill site of the latest victim earlier today, and there were obvious signs of dark magic there. Tainted, twisted magic, and familiar. Familiar in the same way the Darach’s magic was.”

Alpha Adair let out a deep breath, his eyes settling back to their original color as he processed this information. “So, you believe that there is a Darach in our midst, hunting humans and wolves alike to gain power from this ritual.”

Stiles nodded, running his hand through his hair in frustration as he began pacing. “I just don’t understand why. Why the power? What would they need it for? The Darach that used this ritual in Beacon Hills wanted the power to defeat the Alpha Pack.” he frowned and turned his attention back towards Alpha Adair, who looked deep in thought. “Are you aware of any enemies towards your Pack in the area? I don’t think you need to worry about any hunters, it’s very rare to come across hunters with magic, but perhaps a rogue emissary? Death threats towards your pack that might be taken more seriously than any others?”

Alpha Adair sighed and shook his head. “No. I’ll double check with my second and my emissary, but as far as I’m aware we’ve had no rogues pass through in quite some time—especially not a rogue emissary. We live in a small area. Our pack is large for towns of this size, but we are peaceful. We have no enemies that would wish us this level of harm. Only the occasional threats of taking over our territory, which our easily dealt with and not a big deal.”

Stiles sighed. “That’s what I was afraid of.” he shook his head to clear his thoughts. “Alright, then what I need your emissary to do is talk around with the other packs and find out if any of them know of any rogue emissaries wandering around without a pack, or emissaries that have been thrown out of the pack for one reason or another and are still on the loose.” He started pacing across the Alpha’s office again. “I’ll talk to my pack and have them do the same, and I’ll reach out to my contacts.”

Alpha Adair stared at him intensely before nodding. “Alright. I’ll do that, and I’ll have my Pack remain vigilant in the case he tries to go after one of us again.”

Stiles opened his mouth to reply, offer additional advice on protection, when there was a knock on the door. “Sheriff? Stilinski? If you two are finished, we need to head out.” Morgan’s voice called out from the other side of the door.

“What about them?” Alpha Adair asked, nodding to the other side of the door where Morgan was waiting for him. 

“Don’t worry about them, I’ll take care of it.” Stiles promised, backpedaling his way towards the door. “Between the FBI, my pack, and your pack, this unsub won’t be breathing for much longer.” He gave the Alpha a small, yet respectful bow before he left the office, almost running into Morgan in the process and only barely saved from falling on his face thanks to his teammates quick reflexes.

“Jeez, careful kid, you’re almost as bad as Reid.” Morgan chuckled, helping steady Stiles back firmly on his feet.

Stiles chuckled, cheeks heating slightly in embarrassment at the almost fall. “Sorry about that, and sorry that took so long. So where are we going?”

Morgan stared at him for a minute before he responded and started walking through the department. “Hotch wants us to go and interview Daniel’s parents, see what we can learn from them. You were on to something back there, maybe they know where he goes to when he wants to get away and meet new people.” 

Stiles followed Morgan out of the department and straight for the government issued van waiting for them on the street. “So,” he asked as they both climbed in, Morgan in the drivers seat and Stiles in the passenger, “What’s everyone else doing?”

“Well, Garcia is running full backgrounds on the victims and their families, and she’s combing through to see if she can find anyone who has moved into town recently and has experienced a sudden, complete personal loss. There’s not much more she can do until we gather more information about who the hell this unsub might be.” Morgan continued. “Hotch and Reid are staying behind to keep working on a profile while JJ and Rossi head to see what they can gather from the crime scenes where the other victims were murdered.”

“Sounds like a plan.” Stiles hummed, resting his head back and closing his eyes, trying to let his mind muddle through the case on its own. This helped sometimes, when he tried not to think too hard about certain things, small details came into clear view and made him wonder how he never saw it before.

It was silent for a few minutes in the car, soft country music playing low in the background, before Morgan spoke up. “So, you’re married? Little young.” he commented, making Stiles crack open his eyes to see the older agent giving him a sideways glance.

Stiles felt the soft smile spread across his face that came every time he thought of Derek, and his hand unconsciously came up to touch his wedding where it hung around his neck under his shirt. “Yeah. Idiot took so long to propose to me I ended up doing it first, got tired of waiting for him.” Not to mention they officially became mates on his eighteenth birthday. By the time he was 20, he was getting a little tired of waiting to make their werewolf marriage legal in the real world. “Our second anniversary is coming up at the end of June.”

“He move to DC with you?”

Stiles smile faltered slightly and he shook his head. “Nah, he’s still in Cali with the rest of the family. He wanted to come, but his family has a business in town thats been around for over a century. He might move down here someday, if this position becomes more permanent.” he shrugged and tapped his fingers anxiously on his thigh, sending Morgan a wry smile. “Right now, this is just a temporary assignment until you guys find someone to replace your lost team member with.” 

Morgan nodded slowly, his expression giving away very little. Sties reached out lightly with his magic to feel the older man’s emotions, slightly surprised at what he was feeling. Curiosity, mostly, which wasn’t quite surprising in itself, but also a little envy, but also shame that he supposed originated from the envy he was feeling. There was a large feeling of protectiveness, which warmed Stiles chest but he also found unnecessary. He could take care of himself.

“And if we decide you’re the replacement?” Morgan asked casually.

Stiles couldn’t help the self-deprecating laugh that escaped from his mouth. Keep him around, yeah right. “As amazing as that would be, it's unlikely.” he shook his head. “I’ve been tossed around from assignment to assignment since I made it through the academy. I’m an… acquired taste, and I don’t see that changing any time soon.” It was a little depressing that he never seemed to seamlessly fit into any team. He was always too something— too smart mouthed, too impulsive, too reckless, too intelligent. Not to mention the whole supernatural thing he had to keep secret from his team. That, more than anything else, seemed to be what caused the fissure.

Hey, it wasn’t his fault he could use magic to protect himself from things that would otherwise kill someone else. And if that knowledge caused himself to be more than a little reckless sometimes, then, well, that’s something everyone else was just going to have to deal with because he’d be damned if he let something happen when he had the power to stop it.

Morgan didn’t say anything to that, but did ask another question. “You said family— who’s out there waiting for you in Cali?”

“My son.” Stiles said immediately, and he grinned, opening his phone and pulling up the picture of his adorable five year old son that took after him maybe a bit too much. He held it up for Morgan to see, beaming proudly. “His name is William Nikolai Stilinski-Hale. Named him after my husband’s father and my grandfather.”

Morgan smiled at the picture and chuckled. “He’s very handsome. Looks like a bit of a handful.”

Stiles snorted as he took back the picture, gazing down at it fondly. “Yeah, that would be an understatement.” In the picture, William was sitting on Derek’s shoulders, but he looked like he was about to fall off by the way he adamantly was trying to sit on Derek’s head.

“You must miss them.” he said quietly, glancing at Stiles out of the corner of his eye.

Sighing, the younger agent pocketed his phone and smiled at Morgan. “Yeah, but this job is important, and they understand that. Derek was actually the one who insisted I come here.” he chuckled, perking up when he saw the Hollow’s house. “Hey, we’re here.”

Once parked in their driveway, Stiles followed Morgan out of the car and up to the house, standing by his side as he knocked on the door. They waited a moment before a woman opened the door, looking like the entire world was resting on her shoulders and a defeated look in her eyes, one that Stiles is too familiar with. “Can I help you gentlemen?” she asked politely, but it was obvious she didn’t want to talk to them.

Stiles didn’t blame her.

“Yes ma’am. Special Agent Derek Morgan with the FBI. This is my partner, Special Agent Stiles Stilinski.” Morgan introduced. “We’re here to talk to you about your son, Daniel. May we come in?” he asked kindly.

Mrs. Hollow paused for a moment before she gave a small sigh and stepped aside to let them in. She closed the door behind Stiles quietly and turned back to face them, her arms crossed over her chest and avoiding looking them in the eyes. Her hair was swept in such a way across her face that Stiles couldn’t see most of the right side of her face, but he could have sworn he thought he saw an edge of purple bruising on her jaw. Stiles frowned slightly at the unusual and shared a look with Morgan, who evidently saw it as well. 

Reaching Stiles reached out with his magic, both in an attempt to calm her gauge how she was feeling. He couldn’t hold back a small wince when he felt her pain spread across his jaw and up his cheekbone, but the most prominent pain came from his side and a bone-weary tiredness. Before he could say anything to Morgan, however, a man walked into the room and grabbed their attention. “Excuse me? Laura, who are these people?” he demanded sharply.

The man was dressed in an immaculate Italian suit, not a spec of dirt on him from head to toe. He came off to Stiles as one of those people you see walking around downtown, watching the “lower class” with his nose stuck in the air. He had a mean look in his eyes, and Stiles didn’t like the terror that was coming off of Laura.

“FBI, Mr. Hollow. I’m SSA Stilinski-Hale, and this is my partner, SSA Derek Morgan.” he said cooly, a smile plastered on his face. “Why don’t you have a seat? We have a couple of questions for you about Daniel, if you don’t mind.”

For a brief second anger flashed on Mr. Hollow’s face before it was gone. “Of course, officers. Laura, why don’t you come sit down by me, eh?” he asked softly, a gentle smile on his face but Stiles could feel the anger radiating off of him even from here.

“Excuse me.” She said quietly, walking around Morgan and Stiles to sit next to her husband on the couch.

Stiles tried not to let his anger get the best of him.

“Thank you. We’re very sorry for you loss and we’re doing everything we can to find out who killed your son. Anything you could tell us about him could help us, even if it seem insignificant to you at the moment.” Morgan explained, sitting down in a chair across from them while Stiles studied the room.

Stiles didn’t bother listening to the conversation, he got the feeling they probably weren’t going to get anything out of it—the parents would probably deny that their son was even gay. He kept his magic on alert, though, just to stay safe.

What he saw in the room was very interesting. Now, Stiles knows that the Hollow family have three kids—Daniel, and two younger sisters. He knows exactly what a house looks like when you have kids that age living in it, and it was, in a word, a mess. No matter how clean you tried to be, there was just no way to keep the mess away for more than a hot second right after you cleaned it. Especially glitter. Especially. Glitter.

So when Stiles looks around this living room, he doesn’t see a house being lived in by a teenage boy and two younger sisters. Everything is immaculate. Down to the straight edges of the folded blankets so carefully arranged on the couch, to the complete lack of dust on any surface. On the mantle above the fireplace there were a couple of generic, “pretty”, decorations, and one family picture centered perfectly. It was an innocent enough looking picture, and Stiles probably wouldn’t have thought twice about it, if it wasn’t for how they were standing in the picture.

Picking up the picture, Stiles examined it closely. The family was smiling and they all looked happy, Daniel, his parents, and his sisters all wearing white as they posed in a pretty field somewhere. But there was something in the way Mr. Hollow’s hand gripped Mrs. Hollow’s shoulder that made him uneasy. The way all three of the children were standing just ever so slightly angled away from their father. 

It wasn’t right.

Stiles felt a sharp spike of fear and turned around quickly to see Mrs. Hollow staring at him with wide, frightened eyes and Mr. Hollow staring at him hard, though there was a polite smile on his face. Morgan was looking at him as well, a curious expression on his face so it was obvious they must have tried to get his attention already.

He gave them large grin and held up the family picture. “My apologies, this was just a lovely family picture I was merely admiring.” he found himself annoyed at the flash of pride in Mr. Hollow’s eyes at his words, but he had found his way in. “Honestly, I’ve been trying to get my family to take a nice picture for years.” he chuckled and shook his head, gently placing the picture back on the mantle before turning back towards them. “It’s nearly impossible, how did you manage it?” he questioned, walking forwards to stand next to where Morgan was sitting, casually leaning against the chair. 

Mr. Hollow sat up taller, proudly, squeezing his hand tightly on his wife’s shoulder where he had it slung across her back. “Firm hand is all that’s needed, sir, I can tell you that. Just need to reminded of where their place is. You got some kids?”

Stiles felt his magic swirl angrily inside of him at the man’s words, a “firm hand”, but forced himself not to show, instead keeping his smile on his face. “Yeah. Couple of nieces, couple of nephews. And son who is five.” he chuckled, his smile turning soft at the thought of his son. “Absolute terror, he is. Can never seem to get him to sit still.”

Mr. Hollow nodded solemnly. “A firm hand is all thats needed, I’m telling you.” he advised. “Daniel was the same way when he was younger, but that straightened him right out. Course, didn’t seem to do much good when he started acting out again as he got older…”

“Acting out?” Stiles pretended to be concerned and leaned forward slightly, as if he was extremely interested in the ‘advice’ the man thought he was giving. He also subtly placed his hand on Morgan’s shoulder when he felt the other man’s anger flare. Not now. They were starting to get somewhere. “I don't want my son to do that when he gets older. What was he doing?”

Mr. Hollow scoffed, shaking his head. “Yelling all sorts of nonsense.” he waved his free hand dismissively. “Sneaking out all hours of the night, going to those stupid clubs on the weekends. Firm hand.” he repeated, an unsettling grin forming on his face. “It straightened him out pretty soon, he just recently stopped acting out this week. Started getting his shit back together. Dating this pretty red head, aint that right, honey? What was her name?”

“Charolette.” she responded quickly, giving Stiles and Morgan pointed looks while she smiled tightly at her husband. “Charolette Lueza, she lives just down the block, remember sweetie?”

“Ah that’s right.” he snapped his fingers and nodded. “Knew she lived right around here. Good girl. Good that he finally started seeing things how they should be, instead of whatever warped sense of reality he was living in.”

Stiles found the fury that rushed through him was hard to ignore this time, and he let his mouth run. “Warped reality?” he questioned, pretending to be concerned but feeling ice cold. He made a point of looking at Morgan before looking back at the parents. “That might be important…” he muttered under his breath, but still loud enough for the parents to hear.

“Sir, what do you mean by that?” Morgan asked, brown eyes open but there was no warmth there like there was in the car. 

Mr. Hollow scowled. “Trying to fool himself into thinking he needed to be with other men, not women. It’s unnatural, is what it is!” he snapped. “It’s not right, and Daniel would have done damn well to remember that or else he might still be alive. He was an abomination, and it got him killed. Didn't understand the importance, the rightness of settling down, marrying a girl, and having a family. A respectable family, like I have, like you have.” he gestured towards Stiles.

Stiles felt his veins turn to ice and he had to take a deep breath to rein in his anger. He could feel a prod of concern from the other end of the bond, but ignored it for now. This wasn’t something Derek could help him with. “There was absolutely nothing wrong with Daniel.” Stiles growled, taking a step forwards. “It sounds to me that Daniel was a perfect kid. Marching Band, basketball, baseball, perfect grades, honors society, student body president, just off the top of my head! The only thing that is wrong is you’re complete ignorance and unwillingness to accept Daniel for the person he is.”

Mr. Hollow stood up and met him toe to toe, his eyes so incompasionate, so ignorant. “He was an abomination.” he spat, face turning red in his anger. “And it sounds to me like you are as well, which means your entire family is probably a house full of abominations” he snarled. “And it’s people like you who ruin this country!”

The rage that had been boiling inside Stiles, that continued to simmer and simmer as Mr. Hollow kept talking, up to the point he thought he was about to explode and probably do something that would cost him his job, suddenly disappeared.

Gone.

Replaced by a calm peace, pictures of his son and Derek flooding through his mind, laughing and smiling. He could feel the touch of the pack, knew they were responsible for grounding him and— they were right. He couldn’t waste his time on a guy like this. They got what they came for, they got a lead on Daniel.

“Time to leave.” Morgan said lowly and Stiles just nodded, taking a small step back. As Morgan did his best to clm the situation, Stiles subtly slipped his card with his phone number in Mrs. Hollow’s hand as he walked towards the door, deciding it would probably be best to wait for Morgan out by the car.

Morgan followed him out, and silently the two of them got in the car. For a moment, neither of them spoke, before Stiles let out a deep breath he didn’t know he’d been holding and ran a hand over his face. “I messed up. I’m sorry, i should’ve just kept my mouth shut.”

“Maybe you should have.” Morgan agreed, glancing over at him. “But if you had then we wouldn’t have learned as much as we did.” the older agent got out his phone and dialed Garcia and told her to give them the address of a one Charolette Lueza. “Gay teenager, going out to bars and clubs on the weekend suddenly starting to date a girl? In a town as small as this? There’s got to be more to the story.” Morgan said thoughtfully as they started driving towards the dress Garcia had given him.

Stiles nodded absently. paying attention but really listening carefully. He stared down at his phone, his heart aching with the need to call Derek, to here his husband and his son’s voices. A call of his name pulled him out of his thoughts and he finally registered Morgan glancing over at him as they drove. “You did good in there, kid.” he said with a small smile. “Maybe take it easier next time, but you didn’t do bad.” he paused, before he added. “Your son would be proud of you.”

Stiles felt his heart clench at the statement. “Thank you.” he said quietly, before staring back down at his phone and reaching out for the comforting, ever present bond of the Pack. He allowed his magic to wrap itself around in it, sighing intently at the love that was being sent back in his direction and a small smile graced his face. Yeah, his family might be far away. He might not get to see them as often as he wanted to. But they were always there, he was never alone, never alone when he needed it most.

He opened his eyes and glanced at Morgan, thinking back to the protectiveness and righteous anger he had had in Stiles behalf during their argument with Mr. Hollow.

Perhaps he would make a new family, here, as well.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm back! I swear I started this chapter in May...
> 
> Sorry for such a long wait for this story, things have been hectic in life. Some good, some not good. I just finished my first semester of college, so that was exciting. But one of my best friends... well, she's going through some rough times, and I've been trying to help her the best I can. It's been hard.
> 
> But I've finally got the chapter I promised you! Can't make any promises on when the next update might be, but I'll do my best. The next chapter will have a lot more team interaction, and you'll get a little peak at some of the team's opinions on Stiles.
> 
> On another note, let me know if you have any advice on characterization! I feel like that's one thing I really want to try to improve on, but I always struggle with it a bit. Any constructive advice you guys could offer would be appreciated! <3


	3. Aurum

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Surprise!
> 
> Thank you all so much for your kind words of encouragement. I promise I haven't given up on this story! I've got the entire story written out in my head, but with university, it's hard to find time to write. But I hope you guys enjoy this chapter!

“Alright, thanks for letting me know. Uh-huh. Let me know what you two find out.” Aaron snapped his phone shut and stared unseeingly at the board in front of him with a small frown on his face. As far as he could tell, their profile seemed to be progressing steadily, but there was something itching at his brain. Something was missing.

 

“So, why Stilinski?” Spencer asked from behind him, though when Aaron turned around the younger man’s eyes were steadily focused on the map spread across the table in front of him.

 

Aaron didn’t answer for a moment, studying Spencer, the way he absently spun a pencil in his hand, chewing on the end of a pen that he was holding in the other one, so reminiscent of the younger agent he had just sent out onto the field. When he looked up, Aaron gave his lover a small smile. “He reminded me of someone I knew at that age.”

 

A small blush formed on Spencer’s face but he smiled back at Aaron nevertheless. “Besides, Aaron continued, turning back towards the whiteboard, “He’s got talent, you’ve already seen evidence of that.” he gestured towards the half-finished profile they had already, much of it due to Stilinski’s input. “The kid has been through a lot since he finished the academy. Bouncing from team to team, I’m hoping he might be able to sit in here. I’d hate to lose that much potential and talent.”

 

“Who was he previously assigned with?” Spencer questioned.

 

“McNamara. Then, before that, he was with the Cybercrime and Counterintelligence, his first assignments, but due to some authority issues he was removed and placed with trafficking, where he lasted the longest, but then his field agent in charge retired and the new one replaced him, which is how he ended up here.”

 

“He worked with Laura?” Laura, of course, was one of the agents in trafficking. Aaron knew her well, they were fairly good friends, and he nodded in response to Spencer’s question.“Yeah, that’s how I was able to get him on our team. Laura recommended him to me, said he was trouble but worth the trouble.”

 

“Did you know he was married?” Spencer asked distractedly, his eyes following the path his pencil was making on the map.

 

“I knew after I read his file, she didn’t mention it. He also has an adopted son named William.”

 

“Really?” That caught Spencer’s attention. The younger man paused with what he was doing and looked up at Aaron. “But he’s only, like, what, 23? 24?”

 

Aaron just shrugged. “His file reports he got married when he was 20.”

 

Spencer hummed noncommittally before his focus returned back tot he map, and Aaron had to hide a smile. He knew Stiles was starting to grow on Spencer, though it might take a little longer for him to trust him. Stiles seemed to get along well with most of the team, really, which helped ease a little of Aaron’s worry. They needed another member—they’d been missing one for too long now.

 

“Hey, Aaron, come here.” Spencer gestured for him to walk over to the table, pointing at various points on the map laid out in front of him. “Okay, now I’ve charted the abduction sites, where each of our victims was last seen, and their disposal sites. The first victim, Marsha Kale, was found in a field right outside the town. Daniel Hollow was last seen at the high school. his body dumped in this forested area right behind the school soccer fields. Finally, Haley Fisher and Katherine Day were both found in the local park, which is in the center of the town.”

 

“That’s a small geographical area,” Aaron observed.

 

“Yeah, and what I’ve noticed is that while the areas of abduction seem to be all over the place., his disposal sites for these bodies are getting closer and closer tot his park. So I think he’s probably pretty comfortable with the town as his hunting ground, which leads me to believe he’s familiar with it in a way that an out of towner never could.”

 

“So you’re thinking it’s a local.”

 

“Yes.” Spencer nodded. “But that’s not all. See, at first glance it looks like his disposal sites keep centering around this park, right? But I realized at each scene the bodies are facing the same direction. Their feet are all pointing towards the forest. I didn’t catch it at first because the other bodies just seemed to be pointing to the park, but the last two victims were both laying with their feet pointing towards the forest behind the park. We already suspect he’s following some kind of ritual, so it wouldn’t surprise me if he feels compelled to position the bodies in a certain way once he’s finished.”

 

“It’s possible.” Aaron murmured, nodding at Spencer in approval and flipping open his phone. “I’m going to call Garcia and see if she can look into that forest. I thought it was owned by the city, but maybe it’s privately owned land.”

 

“Hello sir, I’m eagerly awaiting your instructions.” Garcia’s perky voice came from the phone, making Aaron shake his head but reply nonetheless. “Garcia, I need you to look into the history of the forest directly behind the park here in town. Can you find out who owns that land?”

 

“Well, lucky for you, sir, our new boy toy already requested I look into that for him. The property is privately owned by one Eliza Walker, 87 years old, widow, and sole owner of those 143 acres of land. She has absolutely zero on her police record, looks like she got married when she was 23 and settled down with her husband, Matt Walker, who died seven years ago at 82 years old.” Aaron heard her fingers typing at something on her keyboard before she continued.

 

“Now, I also looked into her family and while she never had any children of her own, she did have a nephew, who she gained custody of when he was 5 after his mother and father were mauled by mountain lions during a weekend hike. She and her husband raised him until he turned 18, where he mysteriously vanishes off the grid. I can't find anything on him. Not a single credit card payment, pay phone use, not even a Christmas card.”

 

“Alright Garcia, we’ll look into it. Thanks.”

 

“No problem, my furry little friends!”

 

Aaron stared at the phone in his hand and then shook his head. “Remind me to get that girl drug tested,” he told Spencer, ignoring his lover’s muffled laughter in favor for going over the profile again. Hopefully, once everyone returned to the station, they would be able to complete it before another body dropped.

 

“Sir!” The door slammed open and an officer stood on the other side, looking pained and out of breath.

 

“What happened?” Aaron asked immediately, rounding the table towards the officer.

 

“There’s another body.”

 

xxx

 

Knock-knock

 

Stiles knocked on on the door and took a small step back, content to let Morgan do most of the talking this time. He felt calmer after the drive down here and his talk with Morgan, but he knew he couldn’t let himself lose control like that again. They had a job to do, and him getting worked up over something inconsequential in the grand scheme of things wasn’t helping.

 

After a few moments the door opened and the girl who showed up in front of them looked… well, broken, in a word. It must be Charlotte, Stiles thought. She had red hair that the Hollows mentioned, and she was around the right age. It was obvious that Daniel’s death had hit her hard. “Can I help you?” she asked quietly, glancing between the two of them cautiously.

 

“Yes. I’m SSA Morgan and this is my partner, Special Agent Stilinski-hale. We’re with the FBI investigating Daniel’s death.” Morgan said gently, and Stiles watched as the girl’s posture relaxed. “Are you Charlotte?”

 

“Yeah.” She nodded, brushing a strand of hair out of her face behind her ear. “I was wondering when someone was going to come around here. Oh, uh, do you want to come in?” Charlotte asked, taking a set back and opening the door wider. “My parents are at work, so it’s just me and Daisy right now.”

 

“Daisy?” Stiles questioned as he followed Morgan inside the house.

 

“Yeah, one sec. Daisy!”She called as she shut the door behind her. Not a second later, a giant german shepherd came running around the corner, looking just as excited as every puppy is when they see someone new. She came up to Stiles first, who laughed and gently scratched her head while she sniffed his hand.

 

Charlotte looked bemused as Daisy leaned into Stiles’ scratching and started wagging her tail excitedly. “That’s weird. She doesn’t usually take to new people so fast.”

 

“Well, I’ve always been a dog person.” Stiles grinned, chuckling to himself as he could just hear the pack groaning and complaining about yet another one of his dog jokes.

 

“Daisy, go lay down, please,” Charlotte ordered a smile curling at the edge of her lips. Daisy whined at her command but licked Stiles’ hand one last time before she bounced off to another room.

 

“Wow. Is she that well trained?” Morgan asked, staring in the direction the dog went.

 

“Yeah.” The red-headed girl nodded as she led them into a different room. She went and sat in a comfy loving gray reclining chair, gesturing for them to sit down on the couch across from her. “My dad got her for me and had her trained when I turned 13 and started going out for runs and stuff around town by myself. He wouldn’t let me go somewhere by myself unless I had her with me for protection.” she shrugged. “She’s great, so I don’t mind. He’s just worried about the wolves in the woods, wants to make sure I’ve got something to protect me in case one wanders into town until I’m old enough to carry my own gun around.”

 

That was… unusual. Stiles thought, glancing around the home again with new eyes. Guard dog against wolves? Giving her a gun to protect her against wolves? Was this family a family of hunters? Nothing seemed out of the ordinary upon first glance, but, then again, even the Argents seemed totally normal until you dug deeper.

 

“Smart man,” Morgan commented as he sat on the couch next to Stiles. “Probably not a bad idea, especially now. She’ll protect you until we catch this unsub.”

 

“Unsub?” Charlotte echoed, her brows furrowing in confusion.

 

“Unknown subject.” Stiles clarified. “The person who killed your friend.”

 

Charlotte's features darkened and she wrapped a blanket around herself, nodding in understanding. “So, um, what did you guys want to ask me about?” she cleared her throat, speaking up quietly.

 

“You were good friends with Daniel, weren’t you?” Morgan asked.

 

“Yeah. Best friends, actually,” she sniffed and reached up with her hands to wipe a tear off her cheek. “Sorry, I’m just— I’ve been crying basically ever since I found out it was him. I’m a mess.”

 

“Hey, don’t worry about it. You’ve got every reason to be.” Stiles reassured her, giving her a small smile and wishing there was some kind go magic he could use to take away her pain. Unfortunately, magic tied to emotions was some of the most complicated to perform, and there was no way he could do it without touching her. This was always the part of the job he hated. No matter what department he was with, talking to the loved ones of victims of any crime was always hard.

 

“Were you more than just friends, Charlotte?” Morgan questioned, not unkindly.

 

Charlotte looked up at them, surprise etched across her face before understanding and annoyance flashed through her eyes. “You talked to Daniel’s parents, didn’t you?”

 

At Morgan’s nod of confirmation, she scoffed. “Horrible people. Good for nothing father and an even worse excuse for a mother. I hate his parents.” she muttered, an angry fire in her eyes that temporarily replaced her grief. “This is all their fault! If they weren’t such horrible, terrible, no good people and had just accepted Daniel for who he was then none of this would have happened!”

 

Stiles and Morgan shared a glance. None of this would have happened? “What do you mean?” Stiles asked as Morgan pulled open a small pad of paper to scratch notes on.

 

Charlotte sniffed and wiped her cheeks with the sleeve of her sweatshirt. “He was on a date the night he disappeared. He always stayed late after school to practice for band, anything to stay away from home, but that night after he finished practicing he was supposed to go on a date with this guy we met at a club last weekend.”

 

She must have realized Stiles and Morgan were still confused because she looked slightly flustered and shook her head. “Sorry—um, Daniel is—was—gay, but his parents were so awful about it, and he just kept getting into trouble and he was over here all the time just to stay away from that horrid family of his. So we pretended that we were dating to appease his parents and this way I made sure he was safe. Whenever we went on a ‘date night’, we would actually go to the club a couple towns over so he could let loose and have a little fun for once. That’s where he met the guy he was supposed to be meeting—” Charlotte cut herself off with a horrified gasp. “You don’t think that guy is the one that killed him, do you?” she whispered, tears building up in her eyes.

 

“We don’t know, that’s what we’re here trying to figure out. But we will figure it out.” Morgan reassured her. “Now, do you know who he is?”

 

She hesitated, a frown forming on her face as she thought. “Um… kind of? uh, Danny told me he was new to the area. Said he was looking for a place to start fresh.” she sighed. “Danny really liked him. said he was kind, charming. You know, not one of those looking-for-sex douches at most bars. And he didn’t look like a serial killer.”

 

“Serial killers come in all shapes and sizes, unfortunately.” Morgan sighed, and stiles nodded in agreement. Most of the times it was the ones you least expected that turn out to be the real criminals. “Do you know his name? Could you describe him for me? Anything that stands out to you, like a piercing or a unique tattoo?”

 

Charlotte paused again, taking a moment to calm herself and blink back the tears that had started to form. “He… He had this weird tattoo.” she finally said, her gaze unfocused and staring into the distance as if she was trying to visualize it in her mind. “I didn’t get a super good look at him, I only saw him a couple of times across the club, but right here on his neck,” she gestured from behind her ear to her collarbone, “to right here, he has this weird vine-like tattoo. It had some weird shapes coming off the vines that kind of looked like little dogs where the leaves should have been, and it almost looked like it was glowing, but it was probably just because of the lighting in the club.” she admitted.

 

She kept talking, describing in general what the unsub looked like, but Stiles had stopped listening.

 

Fuck.

 

He knew that tattoo.

 

Fuck, this just got a hell of a lot more complicated.

 

“Hold in a second.” Stiles interrupted her, stealing Morgan’s notepad and reaching into his pocket for his pen. He quickly scribbled down a rough sketch of what he thought she was describing, suddenly feeling extremely conscious of the identical one wrapping up his forearms, currently glamoured to be invisible. He showed her the drawing when he was done, holding his breath. “Did it look like this?”

 

Charlotte peered at the drawing and then nodded slowly, looking a little surprised. “Yeah, that’s it exactly. It didn't have that much stuff coming off of the vines though.”

 

So, Stiles thought, an emissary with a small pack. Or at least, smaller than his own pack.

 

Charlotte reached for the drawing, taking it in her hands and studying it closely. Her face was drawn tight in concentration before she spoke slowly. “I didn’t remember it before but this… the vine wasn’t connected like this. It was… broken?” she questioned, glancing up at Stile and then back down at the drawing. Like, the entire vine looked like it was fractured in pieces. And where you have these… dogs? drawn, they were fainter than the rest of the tattoo, and they were glowing red.” A blush of embarrassment flushed over her cheeks. “I mean, I know how ridiculous that sounds, and it was probably just the lighting in the club, but I remembered thinking how weird it was that the vine and these… dogs were glowing a different color.”

 

“Thank you,” Stiles said sincerely, taking the drawing back from her and scribbling down her comments to the side before he handed it back to Morgan. “This is extremely helpful information.”

 

“It is?” Charlotte asked hopefully.

 

“It is?” Morgan echoed.

 

“Yes.” Stiles nodded, turning his head and speaking lowly enough so Charlotte couldn’t hear him, “The last unsub who followed this ritual our unsub is following had the exact same tattoo. We never found out, but it might be part of the ritual.” Stiles lied.

 

Of course, that wasn’t what it was for at all. Every emissary once bound to a pack had a tattoo similar to the one she was describing. They all were in different places around the body, Stiles’ began at his wrist and extended up his arm where it connected with a larger tattoo on his back, but they all represented the same thing. The wolves along the vines represented the wolves in the pack, like a permanent family tree of the body of the emissary, and also provided easier access to the strength the pack provided for the emissary.

 

Morgan nodded in understanding and murmured, “We can have Reid check it out when we get back. If anyone can find out, he can.”

 

“So, do you guys know who it is, then?” Charlotte asked, chewing on her bottom lip nervously.

 

“No,” Stiles apologized, “but this is extremely helpful in figuring out who the unsub is.” He stood when Morgan did, and Charlotte did the same. Reaching out and putting his hand on her shoulder, he pulled some of her sorrow and grief from her mind with a light touch of his magic under the guise of a comforting squeeze. “We’ll contact you as soon as we know more.”

 

Charlotte immediately relaxed under his touch and smiled gratefully at the two of them. “Thank you so much.” she murmured as she showed them out. “I’m glad I could help. U hope you guys catch whoever did this soon. Danny didn't deserve to die. Not like that. Not now.”

 

“We’re going to do everything we can,” Morgan promised, before following Stiles out of the house. During the entire car ride back, Stiles was lost in his thoughts. He knew it was a Darach causing these murders, obviously someone capable of magic, but to find out it was an emissary? An emissary who lost his entire pack? An emissary's vine didn’t shatter like that unless the entire pack was dead.

 

That would drive any man insane.

 

He hadn’t heard of any packs being wiped out like that for years. He’d need to do some digging to figure it out. Maybe, if he could figure out who the Darach is, he would have a better chance in talking them down without having to kill them once they finally figure out where he’s been hiding out at.

 

Switching on his phone, Stiles hurriedly texted Derek with a brief explanation of what was going on, along with his request to ask around about any acts that had been wiped out in the past five years or so. An emissary without a pack was like an Omega, hey never tended to stay alive long. Someone must have heard something, and he trusted Derek to find out. Well, Derek would ask Lydia to help and he definitely trusted both of them to get to the bottom of things,

 

When they got back to the station, Stiles could immediately tell something was wrong. He knew most of Adair’s pack was on the force—they made up the majority of the first responders in the town—and all he could feel was varying degrees of grief and anger and pain off of every single one of them.

 

Morgan and Stiles had barely stepped into the control room where the rest of the team was gathered before Hotch was handing out orders, a dark look in his eyes. “Good, you're back.Morgan, stay here and brief me on what you learned. Stiles, you’re going with Reid to the park. There was another victim.”

 

Reid was already leaving the room, so Stiles had no choice but to follow, forced to pester Reid into giving him the rest of the details. “When did this happen? Is the victim a LEO?”

 

Reid glanced over at him as they climbed into the car, the soft rumble of the SUV filling the air. “How’d you guess?”

 

Stiles shrugged as they started driving, letting out a long breath to calm his nerves. “It wasn’t that hard. every officer in the station looked upset. And angry. I know what officers look like when one of their brothers has been KIA. Another warrior.” he murmured.

 

“Sorry we didn’t brief you before we had to leave, but Rossi and JJ are still out and Hotch wanted us to get there as soon as possible. They found the body half an hour ago,” he explained. “Officer Javier Cuevas. Today was supposed to be his day off, according to the Sheriff, and he usually frequents a lake not too far out of town to go fishing.”

 

“Any family?” Stiles asked.

 

“None in town. Girlfriend is off in New York citing friends for the month.” Reid confirmed.

 

“So there was no one around to miss him.”

 

Reid shook his head silently as the SUV came to a screeching halt in front of the park where the crime scene tape was still up from the last two murders. When Stiles got out of the car, he could immediately tell that something was off. A quick flash of his and Reid’s badges and they were taken over tot he body.

 

The first thing that Stiles noticed was all the dark magic surrounding the body. It was disgusting. Dark magic with no purpose left, now that the body’s life energy had been drained, and just left hanging in the air. Stiles knew it would take days, maybe weeks for it to finally dissipate back into the earth.

 

The second thing stiles noticed, ignoring the faint clue of dark magic around the body, was that the body was laying in the same position as the other victims. Although, unlike the other victims, this one had its hands crossed under its chest, rather than splayed out by its sides. Reid gestured for the ME to go ahead and roll over the body, and Stiles crouched down to get a better look.

 

The victim appeared to have the same cause of death, the blow to the head, the slit throat, and signs of strangulation. But what ought Stiles’ eye was the heavy concentration of dark magic in the victim’s hands. Grabbing a pair of gloves from his pocket, Stiles quickly snapped them on before he reached over and gently grabbed the victims right hand and placed it lower on his stomach, uncovering the source of the dark magic.

 

A piece of paper.

 

Right there, tucked carefully in the victim’s left hand. Stiles felt someone move over his shoulder and he glanced up to find Reid kneeling by his side. “What’s that?”

 

“Not sure,” Stiles responded as he carefully started to unfold the paper. The paper, unfolded, wasn’t very large. No bigger than the size of his phone and—it was blank.

 

“That’s odd.” Reid murmured, confusion lacing his voice. “Why would it be blank?”

 

“I don’t know.” Stiles frowned, flipping the paper over to examine the other side but it was the same. Just a blank piece of paper. Completely unremarkable—so why would the unsub leave it at the scene?

 

“Bag and tag it. We’ll bring it back to the office with us and see what the rest of the team thinks.” Reid said, standing up and walking over to talk to one of the officers that first arrived on the scene.

 

Stiles knew he should follow him, listen and try to find out what was different about this scene—the body yielded no new clues at the moment other than this useless paper and yet—he didn’t.

 

Maybe…

 

“Indica mihi est in tenebris est hic.” Stiles whispered. A rush of magic shot through him and he kept his head down to avoid anyone seeing his eyes flash white as he used his magic. Slowly, words started to appear on the paper in his hands. They appeared in a way that reminded Stiles of the way water ripples when you throw a pebble into the pool.

 

_Little Red, stay away. The Aurum will melt._

 

Dread settled in the bottom of his stomach as he read the words a second time. A third time. A fourth time.

 

Stiles forced himself to close the piece of paper, canceling the spell as he numbly bagged it and handed it off to one of the CSIs for cataloging. He turned and faced the woods beyond the park, the words replaying over and over in his mind.

 

_Little Red, stay away. The Aurum will melt._

 

It was a threat, a clear one. Little Red—his nickname among certain circles, donned from his signature red hoodie he used to wear way back when, now replaced by his more favorite red cape. A little much, yes, but the man he had gotten it from refused to take no for an answer and, besides, it seemed to like him—most of the time at least.

 

This was confirmation that the Darach used to be an emissary. They were one of the only circle in the supernatural world that had that nickname for him, aside from the vampires, who had an odd sense of humor.

 

_The Aurum will melt._

 

Aurum meant gold in Latin. Unfortunately, it was also the name of one of the most famous hunting Clans in Northern American, second only to the Argents. Why would the Darach be threatening them? Unless…

 

“Sighing, Stiles pulled out his phone and called the only person who could help him with this.

 

“Stiles?” A sleepy voice on the other end answered.

 

“Allison, hey, sorry to wake you, but this is important.” he paused before taking a deep breath. “I need you to tell me everything, everything single thing, about the Aurum’s. Even the things that your family has hidden from the public record.”

 

“Okay, but why so suddenly?” Allison asked, rustling coming from the other end of the phone. She sounded a little more awake now, more alert. Stiles felt slightly guilty because Allison was due in a couple weeks and he knew she needed all the rest she could get, but this was important. “Stiles, what’s going on with the Aurum’s?”

 

“They’re being hunted.”


End file.
